


Bodies Respond

by nadiacreek



Category: Rise (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-18
Updated: 2018-04-18
Packaged: 2019-04-24 18:23:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14361048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nadiacreek/pseuds/nadiacreek
Summary: Just a brief view inside Simon's confused thoughts in episode 6, Bring Me Stanton.





	Bodies Respond

“Do you feel something when you’re with me?” Jeremy asks.

Not in the way he means. There’s a tingling when we kiss in rehearsal, a spark that passes when our hands touch. But that’s not anything. It has no meaning. Bodies are physical, and physical touch causes bodies to react. Any actor knows this. It’s important to be professional about kissing scenes on stage. Your body can trick you. The feelings aren’t real. It’s just physics. Bodies respond.

He kisses me right there in the parking lot, and like clockwork, my body responds to his. But it’s nothing. It’s nothing. Why does he think there’s anything more to it? That way lies madness and sin and the pain of tortured souls and broken families. I can’t do this. I can’t. I have to go.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

Annabelle’s a nice girl. She’s sweet and friendly and fun to be around. I like her.

My body will respond to hers, I know it will. It’s just physics. Every action creates an equal and opposite reaction. Kiss, and kiss back. Touch, and touch back. And so on.

No need to dwell on the details.

She’ll be into it, and that spark will happen, just like with … well, with anyone. It’s the nature of the human body. I’m natural. I’m human. I’m a red-blooded American teenager with hormones raging wildly, and I’m going to have sex with my girlfriend.

It’s a sin, of course. I’ll have to confess it to my priest afterward. I wonder if he’ll be shocked.

I wonder if my parents will find out.

I wonder if I’ll get in trouble for it. What will they think of me having sex with a girl?

The rebelliousness of it all stirs a chain reaction of excitement in me. See? Bodies respond.

\--------------------------------------------------------------------

I press my lips against Annabelle’s neck, again and again. She smells like peaches even though it’s fall. Her body wash, maybe? Or shampoo? It’s a pleasant scent, soft and sweet just like her. It suits her.

I’ve lost track of what I’m doing. Focus, Simon. I kiss her again, again, again, my face buried in the crevice between her neck and shoulder, then up below her ear, then on the other side of her face.

She catches my mouth in the middle, lips pressing on lips. I suppress a shudder and move away quickly again to her neck. I guess she’s not a very good kisser. It’s not her fault. Maybe she hasn’t had much practice. She’s never had a boyfriend before, has she? She won’t know the difference. She won’t know that I--

Lights flash, red and blue, and we race away, adrenaline setting my heart pounding faster than it has at any other moment in this crazy, forbidden, teenage cliche of a night. I’m high on the excitement of it, giddy with the sense of my escape.

Bodies respond. It’s only physics.


End file.
